The front office went out of its way to re-sign running back Kevin Jones in the offseason and assured him he would be a bigger part of the Bears offense in 2009, but that plan looks to have been blown up following the exhibition finale.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Jones tore a ligament in his left ankle and will miss the season on injured reserve. The former first-round draft pick was hurt Thursday against the Browns at Soldier Field, when he went airborne near the right sideline, got hit in midflight – it was a late hit, as a matter of fact – and landed awkwardedly on his left foot. Jones was down for quite some time before being carted to the locker room for X-rays.

Signed as a free agent last year after being released unexpectedly by the division-rival Lions, Jones was only given 34 carries in 11 games as he continued to come back from a torn ACL suffered in December 2007.

Matt Forte is one of the bright young stars in this league and poised for a monster sophomore campaign, but Jones was being counted on as a change of pace since Forte broke down to some degree toward the end of 2008 due to a heavy workload. The only other ball carriers on the roster are Garrett Wolfe and Adrian Peterson. While both are solid special-teams contributors, Wolfe is little more than a scat back and Peterson was clearly fourth on the depth chart throughout training camp.

With teams needing to trim their roster from 75 players to 53 by Saturday, general manager Jerry Angelo may have to hit the waiver wire for another option out of the backfield behind Forte.